I feel like the fan base for these movies grows each time a new one comes out. Big mobs at the theatre I chose to see the latest installment – most of them young guys. It’s understandable. These movies are mostly about goofy potty jokes and mimicking other people. Guy humor, and, of course, I love it.

I won’t say much about the opening scene except that it’s full of cameos by some big stars and not nearly as funny as you might think. In fact, “Goldmember” starts off kind of slow. We begin in Hollywood and I generally hate movies that are set anywhere near Hollywood. Please, no more movies spoofing all of the cartoon characters that permeate the motion picture business. We get it already. Thank God “Goldmember” quickly moves on to another story.

But it does have an odd start. Dr. Evil (my favorite character in the crowd) is plotting his latest nasty deed with his regular group of henchman, including his son. What is weird and I guess pretty funny about this scene is that is looks like a completely ad-libbed collection of non-sequiters. All of which eventually devolves into Dr. Evil and his son Scotty (an underrated character played by Seth Green) trading mocking imitations of each other. I was a bit worried that would be the extent of the fun, but things take off from there.

In fact, I used to think of these Austin Powers movies as just a spy spoof – an updated “gross-out” version of the old TV series “Get Smart”, but it actually has developed into a story line like the “Star Wars” movies. But that’s getting too deep – mostly, you’ll either laugh or you won’t at the boy humor.

And I found myself laughing more than the people around me, which is unusual. Watch Scotty’s face as Dr. Evil unveils his latest plan to destroy the earth. It’s a tractor beam designed to bring a meteor in to crash into the planet. He calls it “Preparation H”. Scotty tries to tell him that’s a ridiculous name. What comes next are some classic comedy lines. Later on, Austin and Mini-Me( Dr. Evil’s tiny clone) team up and end up behind a white curtain casting shadow puppets and I don’t think I’ve seen a funnier sequence this year. Prepare yourself – they come up with just about every bodily expulsion including child birth and it’s hilarious.

One disappointment is the actual character “Goldmember”, also played by Mike Myers. He’s a Dutch guy stuck in the 1975 disco era and there isn’t too much there besides mocking his accent. But Michael Caine is a hoot as Nigel Powers, Austin’s Dad, and “Fat Bastard” gets a short scene where he ends up on the toilet bowl, of course. If you’re a guy, there’s nothing funnier than a fat guy with gas problems who ends up tossing his underwear on another guy’s face.

Oh yeah, did I mention this is a movie for boys? I mean actual young guys and those of us still ready to cut loose with a good poop joke. Mike Myers has a way of reaching our inner boy-child with these movies – I give “Austin Powers in Goldmember” a “7.0”.